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This week on Practicing with the Masters, <\/em>we welcome out special guest\u00a0Linda Miles. Linda is a certified speaker, consultant, founder and author. As a long-time veteran in the dental industry, Linda started at 17, making just a dollar an hour as a receptionist and dental assistant in the 1960s. She worked her way up to Practice Administrator in the 1970s, and in that role, she discovered that practice and team development was NOT something that Dentists were taught in Dental School. In 1978, armed with a $500 loan, Linda started a small consulting and speaking business, which she grew over the last 30 years to become one of the most successful in the dental industry. Linda is also the author of 3 books, and has released numerous CDs and audio\/visual productions, in addition to winning multiple speaking awards and designations.<\/p>\n Linda joined the National Speakers Association in 1981, which was the basis for her success as a professional speaker, and earned the coveted Certified Speaking Professional designation in the early \u201880s. In 1997, Linda founded the Speaking Consulting Network for mentoring others who wished to start or enhance their own speaking and consulting businesses.<\/p>\n After selling her company, Linda Miles and Associates in 2007 and the Speaking Consulting Network in 2010, she co-founded the Oral Cancer Cause Foundation with Robin Morrison, after both Linda and Robin had lost family members to Oral Cancer. Linda\u2019s foundation is a non-profit, and strives to educate the public, dental practices and the media on the value of early oral cancer detection and diagnosis. By offering not only\u00a0education, but also financial assistance, to patients and their family members receiving oral cancer treatments, Linda\u2019s foundation has made a profound impact on every\u00a0life they’ve touched.<\/p>\n Linda joins us today to share\u00a0how your practice can become more fun and enjoyable, and how you can experience more success than you have ever thought possible once you learn to lead at all levels. Click “Play” below…<\/p>\n Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. Allison believes that there are four pillars for a successful, fulfilling dental practice: clear leadership, sound business principles, well-developed communication skills, and clinical excellence. Allison enjoys helping dentists and teams excel in all of these areas. Each episode she brings you an inspiring conversation with another leading expert. If you desire to learn and grow and in the process take your practice to the next level, then this is the show for you. Now, here\u2019s your host, Dr. Allison Watts.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Welcome to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> podcast. I\u2019m your host, Allison Watts, and I\u2019m dedicated to bringing you masters in the field of dentistry, leadership, and practice management to help you have a more fulfilling and successful practice and life.<\/p>\n So excited to have you and I know you\u2019ve been in dentistry for a long time. Linda began her career at age seventeen, she was a dental assistant back then. Well, you did receptionist and assisting.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She did that for a dollar an hour in 1961. Then she worked her way up to practice administrator in the mid-70s and when she was doing that, she realized that practice and team development was not something that dentists learned in dental school. So with a $500.00 loan from a bank in 1978, she started a small consulting and speaking business which became one of the most successful in dentistry over the next three decades.<\/p>\n Linda joined the National Speakers Association in 1981 which was the basis for her success as a professional speaker and she earned the coveted Certified Speaking Professional designation in the early 80s. In 1997, Linda founded the Speaking Consulting Network for mentoring others who wished to start or enhance their own speaking and consulting business. Which is where I met you, Linda. After selling, Linda\u2014I know it\u2019s LLM&A, but it\u2019s Linda Miles & Associates, right?<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s correct.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 2007, she sold that and then she sold SCN and in 2010. She cofounded the Oral Cancer Cause Foundation with Robin Morrison of Florida. She\u2019s interested in that because in 2013 she lost her sister-in-law Charlotte and Robin had lost her brother to oral cancer in 2012. So she formed this nonprofit that educates the public, dental practices, and the media on the value of early oral cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n OCC differs from other oral cancer foundations that provide research funds for oral cancer because it offers financial assistance to the oral cancer patient and their families during medical treatment. Wow, that\u2019s really neat, Linda.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s so needed.<\/p>\n Allison: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, wow, that\u2019s really, I never even knew that. Linda\u2019s also authored three books and numerous CDs and audio and DVD productions. Then she\u2019s won many designations as a speaker and many awards. She\u2019s here to enlighten us about in dentistry how it can be more fun and how we can be more successful when we learn to lead at all levels.<\/p>\n I\u2019m thrilled to have you here. I knew you over the years as more of a management consultant. I just didn\u2019t know you had all these other great talents.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All these other things going.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, so I\u2019m so excited to hear.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well I\u2019m so happy that you\u2019re part of the SCN family and I know we have a lot of other Speaking Consulting Network folks on so we\u2019re going to go ahead and get started. Thank you again, Allison, for this invitation.<\/p>\n Our topic this evening is leadership at all levels. Basically, what that means is that every member of the dental team can be a leader. From the high school helper all the way up to the senior doctor\/owner. I wanted to talk about the differences in some practices that the doctor is a born leader, and in other practices where they just seem to never quite connect on how to motivate, how to keep their team members excited about dentistry. So Allison, do you have any questions that you wanted to start off with?<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I know when we were talking the other day you had a couple of definitions and you didn\u2019t tell them to me. You told me one. But I was kind of curious what you had. One definition that I thought was really neat and then I didn\u2019t hear\u2014you didn\u2019t tell me what the other one was.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right. The first definition would be the Linda Miles definition, and that is leadership to me means the ability to make others feel like a valuable member of the team and to instill pride in their work. That was my mantra for many many years. I was privileged way back in the 90s to have Norman Schwarzkopf as my warmup. I call him my warmup act in Vegas because he was the keynote speaker, the celebrity speaker, and I was speaking following him. We actually used the same microphone. So I say he\u2019s my warmup act in Vegas.<\/p>\n He spoke on leadership and it was an awesome meeting. His definition of leadership is the ability to empower others and he said, underline this word, and that is the ability to empower others to willingly do things they would not ordinarily do. To make them feel proud and accomplished.<\/p>\n I loved the word willingly because I think there are two types of employees in dentistry and in any business. There are some that are willing and not able to do the job because of lack of training and lack of encouragement from the leadership. It could be the office manager, could be the dentist, it could be coworkers. But some people are willing to do anything and they\u2019re just not able because they don\u2019t have the skillset or they don\u2019t have the training that they needed.<\/p>\n The other employees that we run into in all businesses are those who are able but not willing. Those that have a negative attitude. I know that we\u2019ve all met those types in our careers. Those who are absolutely able to do it, they\u2019re smart, and for some reason they want to row the boat in a different direction than the vision of the practice and the other people on the team.<\/p>\n Norman Schwarzkopf also had several other phrases on leadership that I\u2019d like to share with you. They\u2019re great quotes. Number one, \u201cLeaders live in a glass house.\u201d He said, \u201cWhat that means, is that your team, your coworkers, are watching every move that you make.\u201d In my seminars I tell dentists, \u201cWrite down the six or seven traits, professional and personal traits, that you would like to find in your workers, your employees, your coworkers. Those are supposed to be the traits that you would actually display on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n So if you want honest people, if you want hardworking and dedicated and committed and accountable people, guess who has to be the most in all of those traits. It has to be the leader, because they do live in a glass house. Their team members are watching every move that they make. So you can\u2019t say these are our traits and these are our qualities we must possess unless the leader possesses them first.<\/p>\n Second quote that Norman Schwarzkopf used is, \u201cLeaders don\u2019t have to be liked. They don\u2019t have to be liked, and they\u2019re not always loved, but they must be respected.\u201d Respect is one of those traits that you will never have from other people unless you\u2019re giving it out on a daily basis. You don\u2019t have to be liked, sometimes you\u2019re going to have to make a business decision, if you\u2019re in upper or middle management, and your coworkers and your team may not like your decision.<\/p>\n I had a call the other day on AskLindaMiles.com, one of the coworkers had an opportunity to take a three-week vacation to Hawaii. Her husband had won some sort of a sales promotion trip. She has a maximum of one week\u2019s vacation. The doctor really, really wanted her to be able to enjoy this trip. He knew he would be setting a precedent that if he allowed one to take a three-week vacation at one time, which was not in the patients\u2019 best interests, was certainly not in the practice\u2019s best interests as a business, and he would be setting a precedent if he said yes.<\/p>\n So he said to this young lady, \u201cIf I were making a personal decision, I would say yes. But based on the fact that my decision has to be what\u2019s best for my patients, my practice, your coworkers, and this business, I must say no.\u201d It was one of the hardest things that a leader has to do, is not always be liked and not always be loved.<\/p>\n But as this coworker said, \u201cI know that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I have two choices. I can either resign my position and go, or I can decline the gift and go for one week and return to my job.\u201d Basically, those were the only two decisions this person had. Again, if you say yes to one, one of my former bosses used to say, \u201cLinda, you get all of the tires on the car\u2014meaning the team members\u2014you get all the tires rolling in the same direction. They\u2019re all pumped up and if you make the wrong business decision as the leader, and you say yes to one person, all of a sudden the air goes out of all the other tires.\u201d<\/p>\n So it becomes a morale issue and a guideline that you have to sometimes make business decisions and not personal ones. He also said that there are two types of employees. I have said this as well for many, many years, that we have an opportunity to hire givers or we have an opportunity to hire takers. The givers come to work every morning with this one thought on their mind: What can I do for my patients, our patients? What can I do for this practice to make it more successful and less stressful? What can I do for my coworkers to make the day easier and more productive? That is the giver\u2019s attitude.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, sometimes no matter how you interview and how you select, you\u2019re going to have a person that is a taker. And we\u2019ve all as consultants and speakers and dentists and team members, we\u2019ve all worked with those who have\u2014it\u2019s a 2 percent, but it\u2019s enough if it\u2019s in your office to feel like 98 percent. And they come to work every morning with a totally different mindset. \u201cHere I am, I\u2019m absolutely wonderful. I can do it all. That\u2019s not my job. And when is my next pay raise?\u201d If the doctor is a giver and the coworkers are all givers and you accidentally have someone like that, it\u2019s very hard to lead a person who doesn\u2019t want to be effective and be a team member and so forth.<\/p>\n Also a good leader allows room for mistakes. I\u2019ve had dentists say to me, several times, \u201cWell, at what point will my dental assistant get what I want to be handed next?\u201d And I said to this one doctor, \u201cWhen you hired this clinical assistant, did you tell her \u2018I want you to be three steps ahead of me at all times. Even if you hand me the wrong thing, don\u2019t wait for me to say, explorer, cotton swab, don\u2019t wait for me to guide you.\u2019\u201d I said, \u201cThe reason she\u2019s waiting is she\u2019s scared to death she\u2019s going to make a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n My advice to all good leaders is when you hire someone, say I\u2019m hiring you to make some mistakes. If I\u2019m a great trainer, which I\u2019m going to try very hard to be, I don\u2019t want those same mistakes repeated. Allow people to make a few mistakes, because that\u2019s how we all learn. Any other questions that you have along those lines?<\/p>\n Allison: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I love what you\u2019re saying, because I think, I don\u2019t know if this is true. This may be your experience. I\u2019ve heard this is true, and I am a perfectionist. I think that dentistry tends to attract sort of a perfectionistic personality.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Let\u2019s say if you were not a perfectionist when you went to dental school or hygiene school, you became one while you\u2019re there.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. We don\u2019t really let ourselves make mistakes. I just hired a new person and I think that\u2019s a neat conversation to have.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Good. Just say, \u201cI\u2019m hiring you to make some mistakes because that\u2019s how you learn.\u201d And always remember as the leader, your employees can\u2019t read your mind. They don\u2019t know. So outlining your expectations is a great part, or a great trait of a strong leader, because our boss expected a lot from us.<\/p>\n My last boss that was one of these born leaders. He expected a lot, but he gave a lot. But we knew our boundaries and we knew exactly where we stood on various issues. That\u2019s because he outlined his expectations, made them very clear to us. He was very supportive, but he expected a lot and he received a lot from his coworkers because we knew exactly what he expected.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s really what my question is, is when you\u2019re working with doctors and just over the years, what have you learned about being an effective leader? What are the tools, or the things that we can take away from this call and go back and do that you think would\u2026<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today, you know, they say when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Something came up on LinkedIn this morning that I want to share with the listeners and with you, Allison. It was written by Jack and Suzy Welch and this is the Welch Management Institute. Jack Welch is one of the professors at Strayer University. Suzy, his wife is a bestselling author and a TV commentator. They had something, How to Think Like a Leader<\/em>. This just really hit me like a ton of bricks. It fits right in with our topic tonight.<\/p>\n It says, \u201cBeing a leader changes everything. Before you\u2019re a leader, success is all about you. It\u2019s about your performance. Your contributions. It\u2019s about raising your hand and getting called on to deliver the right answer. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. It\u2019s about making the people who work for you smarter, bigger, bolder. Nothing you do anymore as an individual matters except how you nurture and support your team and help its members increase their self-confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n He also went on to say, \u201cYour success as a leader will come not from what you do, but from what the reflected glory of your team members.\u201d It goes on to say, \u201cYou spent your entire life, starting in grade school and continuing through your last job, as a contributor who excels in raising your hand. But the good news is that you\u2019ve been promoted because someone above you believes that you have the stuff to make the leap from a star player to a coach.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to actively mentor your people. Exude positive energy about life and the work you are doing together. Show optimism about the future and care. Care passionately about each person\u2019s progress. Give your people feedback. Give them a pat on the back. Not just at year-end and mid-year performance reviews but after meetings and presentations or visits to clients. Make every significant event a teaching moment. Discuss what you like about what they are doing and ways they can improve. Your energy will energize those around you.\u201d<\/p>\n I thought that was very, very profound as far as describing how our mindset changes when we are the worker versus leading the team.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. I love that.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was just very impressed when I read that. Leaders who are bosses or office administrators must know how employees feel. You must also ask this question, what are the three things that you love most about working here? And what are the three things that are your greatest challenges? Because they love to interact. They love to be asked questions. My last boss was a master at that and 35 years ago when I worked for him, the word leadership was not even a buzzword, much less teaching other people how to be effective leaders. It just was something they had or they didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n I came up with four words that I\u2019d love for everybody to write down if they\u2019re taking notes. Leaders also understand the steps of empowerment. I came up with these four steps of empowerment. I think it\u2019s so easy when you are leading other people if you follow these in order.<\/p>\n First of all, the word is hire. You must hire well, and that is do effective interviewing and don\u2019t just rely on a resume but call the past employers and ask this question, \u201cIf you had an opportunity to rehire this applicant, would you do so?\u201d And if they say, \u201cNo, and I really would rather not discuss why,\u201d you probably need to keep on interviewing. The first word I want you to write down is hire. You have to hire them.<\/p>\n The second word is train them. Training is\u2014I can\u2019t even stress the importance. When you see a dynamic team of leaders, you know that they have been so well trained and it\u2019s not like they have scripts that they memorize. It\u2019s that they know where this practice is going. They have a vision. They know exactly what the leader of this practice, the owner, wants as far as their expectations. And they set goals and they monitor and they reward and they communicate effectively.<\/p>\n So the four words I\u2019d like for you to write down: hire, train, trust, and praise. Those are the four key components in my opinion of team empowerment. You cannot trust an employee if they haven\u2019t been well-trained. You can\u2019t praise me if I\u2019m doing a mediocre job. I can\u2019t do a better job if I haven\u2019t been trained. So in that particular order: hire, train, trust, and praise. To me, that\u2019s such an easy process to bring out the best in other people if you\u2019re leading them and to create leaders among you.<\/p>\n One of the greatest examples, I\u2019m only working on one-on-one with one practice at the moment. It took some arm-twisting to get me to say yes I\u2019ll come back in. It\u2019s a client that I said, \u201cI don\u2019t do that anymore. I will refer you.\u201d \u201cNo, no, no, I really want you to come back in.\u201d I just think that it is so easy if you have these four things in order.<\/p>\n This doctor has the most well-trained dental team I\u2019ve ever worked with. I\u2019ve watched her bring in young gals who are in their early 20s and some of them have never worked in a dental practice. She has a fabulous practice and does the greatest dentistry. But she brings out that leadership better than anyone I\u2019ve worked with in 35 years.<\/p>\n I\u2019m watching as I sit in on their team meetings, six months from the hiring date, these young ladies are not just sitting at the team meeting being led by the office manager or the dentist or the consultant. They are actually standing up and taking their turn to facilitate their part of that team meeting. It\u2019s just amazing to watch this transformation. But she has the right order. She hires, she trains, she trusts, and she praises. They will jump through hoops til midnight for her. I think that\u2019s how it should be.<\/p>\n Also I want everybody to know that I had a doctor call me once when I was doing my two-day workshops. Rhonda Savage now does those. But when I was doing them from 1985 to 2007, I had a doctor that called me once and said, \u201cI really would like to send my three administrative team members to your two-day workshop in Norfolk, VA, but I have a problem with doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cIs it the fee? Is it the time off? It\u2019s on a Friday\/Saturday.\u201d And he said, \u201cNo, here\u2019s my problem. I\u2019m so worried that if I invest in my people, and I send them to your two-day workshop, there\u2019s no doubt they\u2019ll come back very well-trained because I sent another person a few years ago.\u201d But he said, \u201cThey\u2019re sort of new to dentistry and I know they\u2019ll come back. Here\u2019s my issue: What if I send all three of them and they come back and go to work for someone else? I have now trained my competition\u2019s team members.\u201d<\/p>\n My response to that doctor, and I hope you\u2019ll remember this response forever, \u201cDoctor, having your team come to Norfolk for this program, having them well-trained, and having them leave is not nearly as expensive as not sending them and having them stay.\u201d<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Laughter]<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I just couldn\u2019t believe that this doctor was worried about that. It was a first for me to hear that his biggest concern was, \u201cWhat if I get them trained and I invest in them, and they get really well-trained, and then they go to work for my competition?\u201d I just couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n One of the things, and Bob Spiel can attest to this, when I started SCN in \u201997, I had a few of my, I guess you would call them competitors that had been out in the speaking consulting world in dentistry a long time. They were really kind of upset when they heard what I was doing. They said, \u201cLinda Miles wants to slow down now and she\u2019s going to train the whole world to be dental consultants and speakers.\u201d And I smiled and said, \u201cI hope so.\u201d<\/p>\n Because if you have an idea, Allison, and I have an idea, and we exchange ideas, we still have an idea. But if there are 50 of us in a room for three days and each of us has five good ideas, we could come back with 250 ideas.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 True.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So working with your competitors is really\u2014every time you give to someone you think might be your competition, you absolutely get it back in spades, in my opinion because we learn by teaching.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think the more we train our employees, the more likely they are to stay.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, I think so too.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If they are on board with our philosophy and if they like growing. If you\u2019re paying to teach them things they\u2019re going to change not only the practice but it changes their lives.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It certainly does. One of the things that I highly recommend is to attend at least one or two local seminars with your entire team. Then once a year, you should do a large conference like the ADA or the Hinman or the Yankee or the DC meeting or the California meeting, the Chicago mid-winter. All of these major meetings are such an experience. What a reward.<\/p>\n I always tell my audiences this, Allison, and you\u2019ll laugh. I say, \u201cFor all of you men in this room, I have to share a secret with you. You may already know it if you have a wife, daughters, mothers, sisters, friends who are women, you probably know this but you don\u2019t know it as well as I know it. That is that all women have to have something big to look forward to in their life. They get really excited about an event. It could be a wedding, it could be the birth of the first child or grandchild, it could be, and when that event is over, we have to start working on\u2014it could be three years from now. But we have to have something exciting to look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n I used to do a lot of sun-fun cruises and sun-fun seminars in Cancun and Barbados and Bermuda and lots of wonderful places. It was called The Dentist and the Dentist\u2019s Spouse and the Team Appreciation Cruise. We had such fun and we kept the batteries charged.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what creates leaders among you, is to keep always looking for the next step of the practice. How can we better serve these patients? How can we be better at setting the stage for case acceptance by the way we sit chairside and talk to these people? We don\u2019t talk about the weather and our vacation and their vacation. We talk about dentistry.<\/p>\n They\u2019re here for such a small little window of time, why would we not talk about all the wonderful exciting things we\u2019re excited about in dentistry? Like new technology or a course that we took. That\u2019s what creates case acceptance and that\u2019s what creates practice growth along with efficient systems in place and great leadership among you. Also, it\u2019s caused from communication being outstanding.<\/p>\n I think at the basis of everything in practice management and growing a business, growing a practice, is ideal communication. We\u2019ll talk about that a little bit more as we go along but Allison, do you have any other questions that I have not answered?<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I just had a thought when you were talking about the four steps to empowerment. I think my team would say, I think I\u2019ve been pretty good over the years at some of those steps. It just depends on where I was in my practice, but right now, I\u2019ve got some people who have been there a little bit longer now and they\u2019re ready to be trusted more.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve actually got a full team, we\u2019ve been sort of shorthanded and they\u2019re fussing at me about not trusting them. I\u2019m not a micromanager, but I think the key is just\u2026<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s hard for you to let go, yes.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n Linda: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s a trait a lot of business owners have. One of the things I loved most about SCN this year, other than seeing all of our SCN family that came back, and the new ones, was Chuck Blakeman was our keynote speaker. He talked about that, and he says that you absolutely need to have a time in your practice or in your business where you can highly trust someone else to run that business. That if you were to take off for a month, it would run without you. It\u2019s on autopilot.<\/p>\n So if they\u2019re crying out for more trust and they\u2019ve had great training, then I think having that conversation with, what we discussed earlier, would help. The other thing is a lot of dentists are very short on praise. They say, \u201cLinda, I don\u2019t praise my team in front of my patients or coworkers because they might ask for more money.\u201d<\/p>\n I always laugh and say, \u201cDoctor, you have it backwards. Don\u2019t you know that if you praise them when they do a great job, number one the patients love to hear us get along well. Also if you\u2019re praising the team, then they start praising you, which creates a real exciting office to work in.\u201d<\/p>\n The patients love that, they love to see us happy and getting along and praising one another and building each other up instead of \u201cthe look\u201d as some dentists call it when they get ticked off at a staff member. The patients, they perceive that body language. You don\u2019t have to say a word, they see it, they feel it, it\u2019s in the air.<\/p>\n So when I said to a dentist, \u201cYou need to praise them more because when you praise them, they do a better job and then there is more money to share with everybody.\u201d Praise is sometimes not one of the strong, I guess you\u2019d say, leadership traits that some of the dentists have a hard time doing. But I think that it definitely changes the whole atmosphere from tense to professional and fun.<\/p>\n Also I wanted to make a note, leaders don\u2019t have all the answers. They ask for input. They make their team meetings very interactive. I would like to take just a few minutes to talk about team meetings.<\/p>\n When our company was in Inc. 500 back in 1987, in 1988 I went to I think it was Cleveland, OH, and that\u2019s where the award for the 500 small business owners and the Inc. 500 awards was. I had three days to walk around, so I knew that I could buy the tapes they had. What\u2019s the cookie lady? Debbi Fields cookies? She was a speaker. Ken Dychtwald speaking on the aging population and how to market to them. They had some great speakers and I really wanted to hear them but I knew they were taping the sessions.<\/p>\n I knew that I only had three days to walk around and talk to as many of these 500 people or 499 other business owners who were lucky to be in that group that year. So I walked up to them and I had my little clipboard and they thought I was with Inc<\/em>. magazine so they were happy to talk to me. I said, \u201cI want three minutes of your time and I want you to tell me what is the one thing that puts your company on the fast track? I\u2019d like to hear from you individually.\u201d They would think and think and then most of them said something I had never heard in dentistry. That was, \u201cGee, if I could only pick one thing, I would have to say it\u2019s our in-house training.\u201d<\/p>\n I was so stunned that I heard it so often, I finally said, \u201cCan you tell me how that works?\u201d \u201cWell, yes, it\u2019s our people training our people. We take time out of our busy week to shut down and have our in-house training. That is, each department talks for thirty minutes about what they do and how they do it. Then everybody is on board.\u201d I thought, gee, I could bring that back to dentistry.<\/p>\n So I started talking in 1989 about the benefit of ex-ing off two hours a week of non-patient time and it\u2019s shocking because most dentists who are analytical are thinking, \u201cOh my gosh, did Linda Miles say two hours a week? That\u2019s a day a month of lost production.\u201d Because that\u2019s how analyticals think. I have to convince them, especially my clients, that taking this two hours a week of non-patient time and designating a team, a \u201chealth of the practice\u201d meeting, the first week of the month. That gives us three and a half weeks to work on our goals for this month.<\/p>\n The first week of the month is called Health of the Practice Statistical Data Team Meeting. And each department in a large practice or each individual in a small practice gives a three minute personal progress report on what they\u2019re responsible for and how they did last month. They keep trying to break their own records. It\u2019s their only chance to shine in front of their coworkers. So when Suzie gives the report, \u201cLast month I made 37 collection calls for past due accounts. Out of those 37 calls I was able to reach 24 people and out of those 24 people, doctor, I\u2019m happy to report our past due accounts are over 90 days dropped 6 percent last month.\u201d<\/p>\n So everybody looks at Suzie and says, \u201cOh my goodness, that\u2019s great, Suzie. We saw you in the back office and thought you were planning your daughter\u2019s wedding on company time.\u201d<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Updating your status on Facebook.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, or on your cell phone. So anyway, every member of the team. So that\u2019s called the Health of the Practice Statistical Data. So many dentists are fearful and this comes into that trust factor part of leadership. They\u2019re so fearful of saying what our production was last month. What were our write-offs last month? How many new patients did we have? Where did those new patients come from? How many emergencies did we work in? How many of those first-time emergencies are coming back for a comprehensive exam if they were first-time emergencies?<\/p>\n So we need to share numbers. A lot of doctors say, \u201cI liked your whole seminar except that part on I have to tell the team what I produced.\u201d I said, \u201cDoctor, they were born at night, not last night. They know what you produced.\u201d When we don\u2019t discuss it\u2026<\/p>\n We also talk about confidentiality before every team meeting. What is discussed in this room today you become a confidant and the discussion never leaves the walls of this office. This is business. You start your team meetings with remembering that this\u2014because some of the people may forget that we just don\u2019t discuss this practice with anyone, or we don\u2019t discuss patients outside the practice.<\/p>\n So the first week is Health of the Practice Statistical Data Team Meeting. Week number two and week number four give us four hours a month to work on all of our behind-the-scenes duties. Doctors, what would you do if you had an extra four hours a month? You would probably clear off your desk, read the mail, you would probably make returning phone calls. You\u2019d probably work on treatment planning. You\u2019d probably do a lot of things in that four hours a month.<\/p>\n So week two and week four are your organizational time. When everybody has non-patient time to sharpen instruments, restock their cabinets and their drawers, work on lab cases. Everybody should make a list of what they would do if they had four hours a week called non-patient time. They need to put that on the doctor\u2019s desk. This is not coffee and donut time, this is roll up our sleeves and do what needs to be done to work on the practice instead of just in the practice.<\/p>\n Then week three is my favorite week of all. That is where we have four half-hour table clinics that are called in-house training. The doctor gives a 30-minute table clinic on clinical dentistry 101. Or a course or a piece of technology that they want. Or they do a hands-on demonstration chairside. The second half-hour is given by the hygiene department. The third is by the administrative team. And the fourth is the clinical assistance.<\/p>\n So everybody gets involved and that\u2019s what creates this leadership, this owner mentality versus unionized thinking that I talk about in my seminars. A unionized thinker is a person that says, \u201cOkay, 5:00, time to go home. When is my next raise? That\u2019s not my job.\u201d They are those taker attitudes that we talked about earlier. We want leaders at all levels and we want those leaders to be owner mentality versus unionized thinkers.<\/p>\n One of the things that Chuck Blakeman explained to me when I had breakfast with him at SCN. He said, \u201cI know what you built, I want to know why you built this.\u201d And we started talking about the spirit of SCN and how everybody wants the other people in the room to be highly successful. He said he\u2019s working on a project in the Congo to stamp out poverty. I thought, \u201cWow, couldn\u2019t you have picked Texas or Virginia? I mean the Congo, that could be very dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n His point was well taken. He said, \u201cSmall businesses that hire zero to twenty people will absolutely stamp out poverty and most of the problems in our own country.\u201d He said, \u201cIf you give somebody a gift, they say thank you the first time. You give somebody a gift the second time, and it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, again, thank you.\u2019 You give them a gift a third time, it\u2019s now expected. You give them a gift the fourth time and it\u2019s now entitlement.\u201d So he believes that if you give people a job, train them to do the job, and let them earn their life, then that\u2019s the best way to stamp out all these issues.<\/p>\n As he talked about that, I said, \u201cYou know, Chuck Blakeman, I wish I\u2019d have met you twenty years ago,\u201d and he said, \u201cWell, I didn\u2019t know all this twenty years ago.\u201d I said, \u201cIf you\u2019ll run for president, I\u2019ll be your campaign manager.\u201d He has a lot of great ideas.<\/p>\n His new book, which is coming out soon, which is really a shocker of a title. His new title of his book is Why Employees Are Always a Bad Idea<\/em>. When I heard that, I thought, \u201cOh my goodness, employees are not going to want that.\u201d But his point is very well taken again because he says, \u201cI don\u2019t want employees, I want stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s calling it stakeholders and I\u2019m calling it owner mentality. Same difference. We think we might be brother-sister of another mother, we\u2019re not sure. Because our minds work the same, we talk about the same things and we\u2019ve never met. It was quite an interesting visit with him.<\/p>\n Employees, as I said, are not mind readers. We need clear communication, it\u2019s the key to ongoing empowerment. Leaders allow others to lead even though they are the designated leader. I think that that is a key factor in allowing others to lead. That\u2019s why this one dentist I talked about has such empowered and leadership at all levels. Even the youngest 22-year-old people I\u2019m just amazed at how they\u2019ve grown in the few months or the years that I\u2019ve known them.<\/p>\n Also, your employees and the people that you lead need guidelines and they also need timelines. They also need follow-up from upper and middle management. If you hired me, Allison, and you said, \u201cYou\u2019re going to be my accounts receivable person and you\u2019re going to work on clearing up all the money on the books.\u201d And you never check back with me.<\/p>\n You see, my boss, I knew what my job was as his office administrator. I was to the check in and the check out and the office manager because it was a very small startup practice. But once a month, he sat down with me and said, \u201cOkay, Miles, let\u2019s go over the accounts. I want to know how many phone calls you made and I want to know are there any slow movers that have sent you promises and no payments as requested.\u201d<\/p>\n He spent ten minutes with me on my project, but guess what. If he gave me that project and he never asked a question and he never checked back with me to see how I was doing, do you think I would probably burn out and not do it anymore after three weeks? If I\u2019m the only one interested in my result, I\u2019m going to just stop doing it.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. Definitely you\u2019d slack off.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So leaders have to check back with the people they lead. Absolutely. I\u2019m going to leave it to you for any other questions, and then we can open it up to those on the call. I know I talked pretty fast about this, but anything else you can think of Allison?<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Is there, do you think there\u2019s a fine line or is it obvious to everybody, the difference between checking back and following up and micromanaging somebody?<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Micromanagers do not have effective followers. Like for instance, if you give someone a task to do and then you jump in and do it for them because you know you can do it faster and better, it absolutely destroys their self-esteem. It absolutely destroys their confidence. They go into a little shell and they just don\u2019t try anymore.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. Also, the checking back thing, it\u2019s just he gave you time. He wasn\u2019t constantly bugging you about it, he wasn\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right. No, once a month we sat down, once a month, and he spent ten minutes with the hygiene department, ten minutes with the clinical assistants, and when he had a new hire, he always at the end of the first week, \u201cWell, how did it go? Is there anything that any of your coworkers here or I can provide for you that would make your next week better than your first week?\u201d<\/p>\n And I always tell people when I hired them in my own company, \u201cYou will not like your job for at least twelve weeks because it\u2019s going to take you twelve weeks to really feel like you understand what we\u2019re about. There\u2019s always going to be new zingers every single day like, \u2018Oops, we forgot to tell her about that.\u2019\u201d The neatest thing is people, usually new people start to like their job in six weeks. So I told them twelve, it was a little white lie, because I knew in six weeks they\u2019d love their job. But I told them it would be twelve weeks before they really felt like they could carry on without asking questions or whatever.<\/p>\n So when they got the hang of it in six weeks, they really felt smart and confident. That hire, train, trust, and praise, in that order is such an important thing.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I love that. It\u2019s very simple.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Very simple.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Makes it nice. So as far as the communication, I don\u2019t really know, that\u2019s probably too big of a subject to cover. I mean, how do you feel about, like I told you the story about my friend who said, \u201cLeave it at home, don\u2019t talk about emotions at the office\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Right, I firmly believe that. I always tell my audiences, \u201cDig a hole right by the backdoor where we all go in and out every day. Dig a hole right by the back door and when you come to work, we all have personal problems. We all have worries about loved ones or pets or finances or whatever. You throw all of your worries in the hole and then when you get to the office you forget those the eight hours that you\u2019re there. When you go home, you can dig them up and take them back home with you and the same thing happens. You never, ever go home and whine and moan and groan to your family.\u201d<\/p>\n I always said, when my children, when David was four and LaDonna was seven, I went back to work as an endodontic assistant in Miami. We were stationed at Homestead Air Force Base. I squatted down and said to my two little ones, \u201cNow Mommy is going to work in a dental office. I start Monday. I work Monday through Thursday, so if you\u2019re going to get sick you must get sick on Thursday night. You must be well by Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n And do you know, in eight years of being a mom and a dental auxiliary, I missed two days of work in eight years.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wow.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was very proud of that. As a professional speaker, that can be real touchy with weather and flights and all of that. I fell and broke my leg on the front steps going to the airport. I fell and broke my arm recently in the hospital. Good place to break your arm. I was on a tile floor and just fell and broke my elbow. I\u2019ve truly had to call in a backup speaker I think four or five times only in 35 years.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wow.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So I\u2019m very proud of that and I don\u2019t believe we should go home\u2014I have friends who actually got divorced because all they did was go home and whine about their job. Your family doesn\u2019t deserve that. I always say, the reason my children wanted to get jobs in high school is I used to say, \u201cMommy had the most wonderful day at work today. I love my patients, I love my coworkers, I have the best boss in the whole wide world. I cannot wait for you to grow up so you can go to work too.\u201d<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wow.<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some reverse psychology.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh my goodness, I wish I would have thought of that a long time ago. My kids have heard all the negative stuff.<\/p>\n Linda: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So true. It works.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We can open it up. We have ten minutes left. Do you have anything else you want to for sure say, or\u2026?<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, I think the questions that come in might spur some more conversation.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Okay, and I do have a few more questions if nobody wants to join in. Let me unmute everybody. Let\u2019s see if it\u2019s not too loud, we\u2019ll leave it like that.<\/p>\n Okay, you guys are open. Does anybody have a question or comment for Linda?<\/p>\n Steve:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I do, or a comment. This is Steve Hart.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hi, Steve.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hi, Steve.<\/p>\n Steve:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hey, Linda. I think I just heard for the first time a different scenario or verbiage about micromanaging that made more sense to me. I\u2019ve been accused of being that. But I think I\u2019ve found a way to be able to tame good leadership or management from sabotaging or really destroying someone\u2019s power. So I really wanted to thank you for that.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n Steve:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That was really good. I am thinking back to times when I know I\u2019ve done that and in other times where maybe I\u2019ve been\u2014I mean, I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a good micromanager. What do you call a good micromanager? Maybe a good manager?<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A good micromanager is one that can\u2026 with the DiSC behavioral profile most dentists are Cs, which are perfectionists off the chart. They do not have stress, Steve. They create stress. I grew up with a C father, so I know, perfectionists. There were four kids. Our house was not always organized and my dad wanted everything in its place. It\u2019s a wonder that we\u2019re not all OCD.<\/p>\n Steve:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019ve oftentimes heard that I myself don\u2019t have stress but I\u2019m a carrier.<\/p>\n [Laughter]<\/p>\n Linda: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I love that. I\u2019ll have to borrow your phrase. I like that. You\u2019re a carrier. I also know this, that you see people, which is the perfectionist, the micromanagers that think they are a little too, less trusting, shall we say. One of the things I can tell you that\u2019s going to make you feel really good, is there is no more sensitive person on earth than someone like you. You expect so much of yourself that under stress, you become critical of other people. And you hate that about yourself. You literally hate it. But it\u2019s something that was stamped on your forehead in dental school, if not at birth.<\/p>\n But you can improve after hopefully this little chat tonight. You can improve on a daily basis. What I would recommend is go to your team and say, \u201cI have had an epiphany and the epiphany is I truly diminish other people\u2019s strengths by some of the things that I say and do that I really don\u2019t mean.\u201d Most of the women that work in dentistry are born caretakers, caregivers, and they\u2019re very sensitive. They actually will cry if a micromanager is too much of a manager.<\/p>\n Steve:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen that happen.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, and sometimes they quit. I had a doctor that was out in New Mexico that actually grabbed the hand of his dental assistant. She had eleven years\u2019 experience, she was not a brand-new assistant. He grabbed her hand in front of me. I was standing in the hallway observing. He said, \u201cI told you,\u201d with clenched teeth, \u201cI told you to hold the pad here, not there,\u201d the mixing pad. She left and I said to him at lunchtime, \u201cYou know, doctor, I don\u2019t want to hurt your feelings, but I would have a difficult time working for you too.\u201d<\/p>\n Later I saw him at a dental meeting. He was 47 and still a bachelor, and his behavior was probably worse out of the office than in the office. He saw me ten years later at the ADA and told me that what I did for him was beyond practice management. He now is engaged, and he now has redeveloped a different relationship with his females, all the females in his life. So that was good.<\/p>\n Steve:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That was good and that really opened my eyes what you said, because I just got it. It was an aha moment. So thank you very much.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was an aha\u2014you\u2019re so welcome. It\u2019s so good to have you on here, Steve.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Does anybody else have a question?<\/p>\n Jill:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t have a question, but it\u2019s Jill. I do have a comment because I\u2019m the same. Thank you, Linda, so much, I appreciate all your comments because I have a dentist that has just asked me to come in and talk to the staff because he\u2019s 65. He\u2019s keen to work another five years, he says, he loves dentistry so much. But his team are burnt out and he wants me to come in and talk to them to re-energize them and I think you gave me some great ideas there.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wonderful news, I\u2019m so glad.<\/p>\n Jill:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019ve been in dentistry a long time and they\u2019re burnt out and he\u2019s energized to keep going.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That was exactly the last assignment I was called in to do was to get the smile back on the team members\u2019 faces, because they were burned out. I said, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to understand what is important to the women in your office.\u201d One of the things that was a real clincher was they\u2019d had some deaths in the families of the team. They had some illnesses, serious illnesses, and they were sad. So getting the smile back on their face is not always easy unless you know what is it that\u2019s important to that person outside the office and inside the office.<\/p>\n You try to meet their needs and be encouraging. One of the older dentists told me once that he was totally burned out, and I said, \u201cDoctor, in listening to you, how could you be burned out, you\u2019ve never been on fire yet?\u201d And that was so true because he hated dentistry, he hated going to his office. I thought, just sell the practice, let somebody else have it because I would not have wanted to work for him.<\/p>\n Jill:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh goodness, well thank you very much, I appreciate all you\u2019ve said.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anybody else? We have a few more minutes.<\/p>\n Roy:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hi, Linda, this is Roy Shelburne. I have a question. You\u2019re the consummate leader and I was wondering if you might be able to share your greatest leadership challenge and how you handled it.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wow, that\u2019s a good question, Roy. I think that my greatest leadership challenge was that I was always on the road and I didn\u2019t spend enough time with my own team in the corporate office. So not being present, being an absentee owner, was my biggest leadership challenge.<\/p>\n But thank goodness, Lee Tarvin, we will celebrate our 30th<\/sup> anniversary in February of working together since \u201984. She was a fabulous leader, still is. We don\u2019t have a team anymore, just the two of us work from our homes. But I think that being away and trying to be part of the team only on Monday was my biggest challenge.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you have more, Roy?<\/p>\n Roy:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No, I was just thinking, as a dentist, a lot of times if we\u2019re not engaged, we\u2019re absentee owners as well.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, that\u2019s a new seminar Roy, right that down. That is fabulous what you just said. You can be there daily and still be an absentee leader.<\/p>\n Roy:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can. What you just said rings so true. You can be there and not be engaged, or ignore, or just hope it will go away and in that respect you\u2019re very much absent. What you shared in terms of being able to realize that and to implement and certainly to train and have them able to be on automatic pilot. But of course you have to be engaged enough to train them to begin with.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You have to check back with them. How\u2019s your project going? If the leader isn\u2019t engaged, as you said, in the result, the result will go away. It\u2019s like dentists ask me all the time, \u201cYou know, Linda, we\u2019ll go to a seminar, we\u2019ll get all fired up, we\u2019ll do it for three or four weeks, and then the first thing I know they\u2019re not doing it anymore.\u201d I\u2019ll say, \u201cHow often did you check back to see? How excited were you about their process?\u201d \u201cWell, I just gave them the job, they should know how to do it.\u201d You know? It doesn\u2019t work that way.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. And I think that\u2019s a test sometimes in practice, to do that.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You get busy. I tell my audiences, \u201cIf you think you have a hard job, you ought to be a dentist. Not only do they take care of their patients and their clinical needs… If a surgeon makes a mistake, the patient\u2019s asleep, they don\u2019t know it. But if a dentist makes a mistake, so they\u2019re constantly having to take care of the patient, then they have a business to run, which they weren\u2019t taught in dental school how to do so. Then they hire and they become an employer and they\u2019ve got to keep everybody\u2019s battery charged. It\u2019s a tough, tough job.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, definitely. I have appreciated everything tonight, Linda. It was wonderful to hear. You had a lot of pearls in here tonight, so I\u2019m going to probably listen to this again and let some of it sink in.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s great, and it has been recorded, right, Allison?<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, and everybody that\u2019s on will get the recording. If you signed up you\u2019ll get the recording.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It might even be a good idea to share it with their whole team, if they\u2019re\u2026<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah, absolutely.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you so much for being on. And Allison, thank you so much for the invitation.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Absolutely, it was a joy to have you. I really did learn a lot, and I know everybody on the call did and I am going to share this with my team.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Good, good. Then you\u2019re going to say, \u201cWe have a new leader, and it\u2019s me!\u201d<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah. Absolutely. We\u2019ve been reading a John Maxwell book as a team. We have a meeting every other week and we had our meeting today and we were kind of just going, \u201cMan, we read this book, but we\u2019re not really implementing it.\u201d So it\u2019s funny we\u2019re talking about all those things again tonight.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We do work on it.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And John Maxwell is one of my favorite, favorite authors. He\u2019s great.<\/p>\n Caller:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I just also wanted to say thank you to Allison. I\u2019ve been a part of three or four of these great phone calls and what a great contribution to dentistry you\u2019re making, Allison, just having these wonderful people to help us. So thank you very much.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks.<\/p>\n Linda:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And Allison is such a great moderator. She makes everybody on the call feel welcome. It\u2019s like a chat. We\u2019re just sitting in someone\u2019s living room having a conversation.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks.<\/p>\n Caller:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was great.<\/p>\n Allison:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all for showing up. It wouldn\u2019t be very much fun if I didn\u2019t have anybody else on here. It would just be me and Linda talking. It is like we\u2019re talking but it is fun to have you guys and I really enjoy and appreciate the interaction and the questions and the comments.<\/p>\n Linda: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everybody have a great, great evening, and a great weekend coming up.<\/p>\n Thanks for listening to Practicing with the Masters<\/em> for dentists, with your host, Dr. Allison Watts. For more about how Allison Watts and Transformational Practices can help you create a successful and fulfilling practice and life, visit transformationalpractices.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/div> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week on Practicing with the Masters, we welcome out special guest\u00a0Linda Miles. Linda is a certified speaker, consultant, founder and author. As a long-time veteran in the dental industry, Linda started at 17, making just a dollar an hour as a receptionist and dental assistant in the 1960s. She worked her way up to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[303],"tags":[309,305,304,307],"yoast_head":"\nWhat You’ll Learn From This Episode:<\/h3>\n
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Listen To The Full Interview:<\/h3>\n\n
Featured On The Show:<\/h3>\n
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Full Episode Transcript:<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nLeadership at All Levels with Linda Miles<\/h3>\n
CLICK HERE TO READ THE TRANSCRIPT (9,203 WORDS )<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
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